Posted on 09/30/2006 3:11:28 PM PDT by wagglebee
That's one small word for astronaut Neil Armstrong, one giant revision for grammar sticklers everywhere.
An Australian computer programmer says he found the missing "a" from Armstrong's famous first words from the moon in 1969, when the world heard the phrase, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
The story was reported in Saturday's editions of the Houston Chronicle.
Some historians and critics have dogged Armstrong for not saying the more dramatic and grammatically correct, "One small step for a man . . ." in the version he transmitted to NASA's Mission Control. Without the missing "a," Armstrong essentially said, "One small step for mankind, one giant leap for mankind."
The famous astronaut has maintained he intended to say it properly and believes he did. Thanks to some high-tech sound-editing software, computer programmer Peter Shann Ford might have proved Armstrong right.
Ford said he downloaded the audio recording of Armstrong's words from a NASA Web site and analyzed the statement with software that allows disabled people to communicate through computers using their nerve impulses.
In a graphical representation of the famous phrase, Ford said he found evidence that the missing "a" was spoken and transmitted to NASA.
"I have reviewed the data and Peter Ford's analysis of it, and I find the technology interesting and useful," Armstrong said in a statement. "I also find his conclusion persuasive. Persuasive is the appropriate word."
The "awkward pause" could have also had something to do with the being overwhelmed at the actual realization of what he had done.
Neil Armstrong's name will live in trivia lore long after 99.9 per cent are forgotten.
You're right about that.
I was always sure that was what he meant.
47 posts and no mention of Mr. Gorsky!
I've never been a big fan of canned sentiment under any circumstances.
But imagine what we would be doing if NASA wasn't run as an inefficient bureaucracy!
Though I'm skeptical that the private sector, with it's 'bottom line' mentality, is the best answer - there needs to be a third option.
As far as I know, there isn't any, so we have private industry competing for LEO business were tourism may be profitable, while the bureaucratic behemoth that is NASA does deep space (pun intended).
Sigh.
Nor has there been a mention of the UFO that Buzz Aldrin claims to have seen.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1672007/posts
"Holy sh!t, I'm walking on the f*cking Moon!"
Don't you know those astronauts gets some serious "groupie tail!" If your nickname is "Buzz," you're a chick magnet!!!
a lot of what is attributed to arabs was actually invented in south asia and east asia. Arabic numerals are hardly arabic. Arabia is just where the west came in contact with the technology as it made its way across
I think this is all wrong. I contend that you can hear him say "a" in front of man, but the static drowns it out and unless you know what you are hearing, you don't pick it up.
no but i have something better
"A myth widespread in Muslim countries is that when Armstrong (and Aldrin) were on the Moon, they heard a strange singing voice that they discovered was the adhan (Islamic call to prayer), and that this caused them to convert to Islam after their flight. In March 1983, the United States Department of State released a press statement for embassies and consulates in Muslim countries that attempted to dispel the myth noting that Armstrong had not moved to the country of Lebanon, nor converted to Islam.[42]"
hahahah
only on wikipedia.
:')
A pre-teen Neil Armstrong was pulling weeds along the side of his house one summer's evening, and his neighbors, the Gorskis, were in their bedroom. The window was open (those being the days before universal air conditioning), and Neil heard snippets of some bedroom conversation.
Being curious as well as young, Neil heard some things he didn't understand until later. Mr. Gorski had apparently asked Mrs. Gorski for a little of what we know today as, "Bill Clinton;" Mrs. Gorski protested. "When that boy next door walks on the moon!" she told the crestfallen Elmer.
Years passed, and Neil Armstrong forgot about the Gorskis. He had things to do, like flying in Korea and testing stuff for NACA. Anyway, in 1969, Armstrong had a flashback, as he sat in his Apollo capsule with Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin, on the way to the moon.
Hours later, Neil Armstrong stepped from the LEM to the dusty, cheesy surface, and said, for all of us to hear, those famous words: "One small step for man -- one giant leap for mankind."
NASA shut off the next part of the transmission, when Armstrong muttered, "Good luck, Mr. Gorski!"
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